By Louise Sapphira.
Drawing on our internal worlds and the people that surround us, when pushing through a dark situation, finding the light.
Good short stories have a way of capturing the heart of the reader. Laurie Steed’s, Greater City Shadows and Other Stories does this by exploring community, relationships, family, love, heartache, and hope. I met with Laurie to discuss how these elements are woven into the short story collection Greater City Shadows. We also discussed the crafting process involved in short stories. Laurie said, ‘People have a lot invested in their reality. So part of my job [as a writer] is to pop the bubbles that don’t work for them in the characters’ and provide alternatives ‘that might be genuine or real.’ The reader senses this through the raw honesty in each short story allowing the audience to reflect on their own reality.
We spoke about what inspires writing short stories. Laurie said, ‘Life has never really felt like a novel. It’s felt like a series of moments or events that have occurred.’ In the context of a short story, it involves ‘trying to understand someone or something about the world.’ In Greater City Shadows, it was about the characters finding ‘light from a darker place,’ from a moment in each unique story. Laurie explained this darker place might be about feeling fearful, alone, or isolated but then someone shows up and helps. Laurie added, ‘For me, it was a real gift to write Greater City Shadows because I just kept finding really exciting and optimistic things about people and the way they connect despite the way things get in the way.’
We also discussed how observations and research are woven into a short story. For Laurie, it is more about observations. He said, ‘There’s so much I see I already want to write about. So I’ve not yet gotten to a point where I’ve exhausted that.’ The research ‘is almost the minutia of everything I’m looking at.’ Laurie explained it is more about filling in sensory elements or intellectual data. Say, a character is an artist, he might then explore their works through a virtual exhibition. Laurie added, ‘I might not be the character, but I’m in the same setting and I’m seeing and hearing the same things, and making sure if someone’s reading my work, they feel like they are there.’
Laurie writes about a character as if they are a real person and this also includes their ‘emotional complexity’. The audience can connect the short stories with someone they know or ‘think that person could be out in the world.’ He added, ‘Typically, my plot served the character a lot more than my characters serve the plot.’ We also spoke about the character transformation in a short story. Laurie said, ‘It’s usually the crux between one’s hope and one’s fears.’ A writer can push enough fears in front of a character and they will have to jump over these fears to reach the other side and that creates a ‘meaningful arc.’
The characters in the short story collection are often immersed in their worlds but also aware of their surroundings. Laurie discussed that much of Greater City Shadows was written in the State Library of Western Australia. He felt small within the wider world even though Perth is not a large city. He added, ‘So for my characters, in a way I want them to wake up and see that greater world.’ Furthermore, ‘[Many] of my characters have gone through a lot of things before the story I’m telling, so I did want to reflect that one’s external world can feel a little bit more frenetic if one has a lot going on internally at the same time.’ Also, if the focus is on the internal world the pace of the stories becomes slow. Therefore, with the character development, ‘It’s important that is also reflected by what’s going on around them.’
In the short story Reflections on a Ghost Story, the audience starts to see the author’s own experiences on the pages. Laurie desired to ‘acknowledge and remember all those people within the book.’ In this short story, one character is described as: ‘A ghost, of sorts. Easy to see but difficult to grasp.’
Laure explained, ‘There are still some characters, let alone some of the inspirations for the characters in the book…that I still don’t quite grasp.’ However, ‘I did want to show up in some way and open up a different discussion,’ and this happens in this short story.
The crafting process of short stories was discussed further, in particular intuition versus the mechanics of writing. Laurie said, ‘By the time I [wrote] Greater City Shadows, I was much more confident with my intuition.’ However, ‘this only came through many years of learning the mechanics, so that I knew what tools to use and how to create these kind of stories.’ Laurie added, ‘One of the biggest strengths for me in regards to Greater City Shadows in terms of learning was saying [to myself] I’m going to end the story here, even if it feels I’ve just cut off the end.’ Writing the ending of a short story can create uncertainty and be scary, ‘But the short story format is probably one the few where you might be able to pull off the landing.’ Laurie discussed the finishing story The Crazy and the Brave, and the crafting journey of allowing loose ends at the finish. Laurie wanted the last short story to be intense and for the audience to have a catharsis moment and consider ‘that was a big, heavy, but redemptive story.’ It was more about intuition than the technique of writing.
When reading the short story collection in Greater City Shadows, an ideal audience starts to become apparent. There are references to the 1990s such as Red Faces from Hey Hey It’s Saturday and the pop group Girlfriend. He discussed the memories and nostalgia from this period. Including the connections that can be made with people who were also teenagers during these years. He added, ‘I actually want people who grew up at the same time as me to find things they love about being Australian.’ There are heavier topics within the 1990s but also ‘there are some really fun things about what it meant to be Australian in that time.’ He is writing for people who are in their forties or even older and hopes younger people will also read and enjoy the short story collection, even if they don’t understand some of the references.
Laurie also mentors emerging writers. In terms of working with people on finding originality in a narrative, he discussed the analogy of playing with Play-Doh. He added, ‘Originality comes from being willing to throw the Play-Doh on the floor or pull it apart.’ In the short story Two-Part Lullaby, ‘Somehow these characters have started playing with Play-Doh literally, whereas I play with it metaphorically.’ Laurie explained how this concept demonstrates when a writer is willing to take risks then they can reach ‘original territory’ in a narrative. However, what Laurie has mostly discovered about writing and himself with his mentoring and manuscript assessment is ‘to trust…[his] intuition and for them [the emerging writers] to nurture and foster their intuition…to trust the crazy idea sometimes.’
Early in Laurie’s writing journey, he wrote science fiction. However, he said, ‘I just love vulnerability.’ He added, ‘It is like the key that unlocks my heart, so it could be a memoir, it could be a short story, it could be a novel.’ Laurie mentioned how a friend once asked him to write his story as a ghostwriter and his face just dropped. He added, ‘The only thing I’ve earned by doing what I do is my ability to reflect upon myself, and I wouldn’t steal that gift from someone.’ Laurie could work together with someone on their autobiography but not as a ghostwriter.
Laurie’s next project is a realist fantasy fiction novel about an older couple where one is an artist. Laurie does not reveal the details about the second protagonist. The novel explores ‘how they heal from past realities together.’ He said, ‘I wanted to write a love story that honours older people.’ For Laurie, returning to write a novel is scary but also exciting. He added, ‘It reminds me that it’s a gift to write these things.’ Laurie shares this gift by creating characters that demonstrate vulnerability. A theme that is also shining in his current project. While also demonstrating, that having connections with those around us helps to overcome personal struggles.